The leadership award went to Nigeria's Patience Igbiti and the emerging leadership accolade was handed to Vladyslava Kravchenko of Malta.

Malawi received an award for their National Paralympic Committee, while World Para Ice Hockey (WPIH) was recognised for their work as an International Federation.

Igbiti won the leadership award due to her influence in the introduction of a women's powerlifting division in Africa and internationally, as she has been an advocate of the sport for over 30 years.

She is the first-ever gold medallist in women's Para powerlifting, two-time medallist at the Paralympic Games and a six-time world record holder.

As a coach, she guided Nigerian powerlifting to 10 gold medals at London 2012, and 17 out of a possible 60 medals at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

Kravchenko won the emerging leadership award for her work with the youth, as she became an ambassador for the Paralympic movement in 2015 when she was selected by the European Paralympic Committee to represent them.

She became the first female athlete to represent Malta at a Paralympic Games since 1980 as she competed in the swimming events at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

She received recognition from Queen Elizabeth II in 2017, when she was presented the Queen's Young Leaders award for her work in Para sport.

The National Paralympic Committee of Malawi (NPC Malawi) received an award for their efforts in promoting women's involvement in Para sports.

Three women were elected to the decision-making positions of general secretary, treasurer and committee member for NPC Malawi in 2022.

WPIH received recognition for their creation of a pathway to add a women's Para ice hockey event at the Paralympic Games.

They will be holding the first-ever Women’s World Championships for Para ice hockey in 2025.

IPC President Andrew Parsons expressed the importance of the leadership role women are taking in sports, which is the reason why these awards are being given out.

"The IPC has been running its International Women's Day Awards for over a decade and every year we are hugely encouraged by the quality of the nominations," said Parsons.

"It is particularly important for the Paralympic Movement to have strong growth in female representation. 

"In the last year alone the IPC Senior Executive Team has become 50 percent female and six of the 14 IPC Governing Board members are women. 

"We are seeing more women in leadership positions amongst our members, where they are creating new platforms for female athletes, coaches, and officials to excel.

"A huge well done to the winners for their well-deserved recognition, and a thank you to all of those who entered the awards.

"We are excited that there are so many female advocates from across the world making the Paralympic Movement more inclusive and opening new opportunities for women."

Since 2013, the International Women's Day Recognition Awards have been given out to outstanding women and federations that support the Paralympic movement.